The (RS:X), Laser, Laser Radial, Finn, 470, and 49er all return for 2016.

The keelboat disipline has been dropped meaning that both women’s (Elliott 6m) and men’s (the Star) are not part of the program. This is the first time the Olympics have not featured a keelboat.

The multihull discipline has been reintroduced using the Nacra 17 since the Tornado was dropped for London 2012.

In terms of gender a mixed gender event was introduced for the first time in Olympics Sailing. This follows to some degree the paralympic sailing competition which in 2008 introduced a two person keelboat discipline in the Skud 18 with a requirement for at least one of the two person crew to be female. Tennis and Badmington are the other olympic sports with a mixed discipline.

Women’s skiff discipline has been added using the same equipment as the mens skiff disipline but with a slightly reduced sailplan 49erFX

Kiteboarding was initially voted by the ISAF Council in May 2012 to replace windsurfing with kitesurfing and reaffirmed that vote on 9 November 2012.[1] The move was controversial as former gold medalist and IOC member Barbara Kendall said she would challenge the decision and that “it’s exciting for kiteboarding but tragic for windsurfing. Kiteboarding really is a sport that should be at the X-Games.” However, on 10 November 2012, the delegates at the International Sailing Federation’s General Assembly voted to keep windsurfing at the 2016 Olympic Games, overturning the ISAF Council’s decision which had already been partially implemented within ISAF Events and Rankings.[2]

Following the announcement of the game water pollution became a hot topic, and a commitment to cleaning up the water was given by the hosts. This target was not fully achieved and water quality issues were frequently in the media.[3][4][5]World Sailing examined various options including holding the racing fully outside the bay or even moving the event to Buzios.[6] However in the end only the Belgian sailor Evi Van Acker reported that her olympics were affected.[7] The location for sailing events was a source of concern for athletes since scientists had found drug-resistant super bacteria in Guanabara Bay due to the daily dumping of hospital waste and household raw sewage into the rivers and ocean. The Brazilian federal government’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation lab also found the genes of super bacteria in a river that empties into Guanabara Bay.[3][4]

Just before the games the launch ramp collapsed but no one was injured.[8]

Both the Finn Gold medal, RS:X Mens gold and silver medal, 470 Womens gold were effectively decided before the medal race. The 49er class gold was decided with both the final series race and medal race remaining.

Medal race course while providing a spectacular background had its critics due to the variable wind conditions.

A total of 380 athletes competed in the sailing competitions of the Games. The qualification period began at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships in September 2014. As hosts, Brazil was guaranteed one quota place in each of the ten events.[9]

Racing at the 2016 Olympics was fleet racing where all competitors started and sailed the course together. They were scored according to the low-point system, where first place is scored 1, second place is scored 2, etc. There was a series of preliminary races followed by the final Medal Race. The RS:X, 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 classes had 12 preliminary races, other classes have 10.

At the end of the preliminary races, the top ten boats in each class (i.e. those with the lowest total scores) advanced to the Medal Race. Each boat might exclude one race from their total. The Medal Race could not be excluded from the series score and counts double. The boat with the lowest overall total after all races was the winner.[10] Any ties in the final rankings were broken in favour of the competitor/crew finishing higher in the Medal Race.[11]